It must have been so tough to be known as the inspiration for Ferris Bueller.
At least that's how Edward McNally makes it sound. McNally, 53, recently explained to the Washington Post that he might have been the inspiration for John Hughes' iconic Bueller. Except he wasn't. But he was! Except probably not!
Even McNally himself doesn't seem to know -- but he wants you to know that he could be! To wit:
"Movie director John Hughes and I grew up on the same street in our home town of Northbrook, Ill. We both graduated from Glenbrook North, the high school where he filmed scenes from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "The Breakfast Club," where his mom worked and two sets of our sisters were classmates. Because for years I was relentlessly pursued by a remarkably humorless Glenbrook dean about attendance, pranks and off-campus excursions -- and because my best friend was in fact named Buehler -- I've spent an inordinate amount of my life being unfairly accused of serving among the inspirations for Ferris Bueller."
Truly. You must have felt positively persecuted. He goes on:
"That said, I'll admit that Ferris-ian high jinks were the everyday stuff of our boyhood lives. Ferris clocked in at nine absences his final high school semester. My own was a breathtaking 27. That might explain the dean's pursuit. The key was, from the time I entered high school, all sick notes from our mom were actually penned by our sister Sheila. Even the real ones."
So you're not the inspiration, you're...better than the inspiration? I don't understand -- if you were unfairly accused of being the inspiration, why would you publish an 800+-word letter in the Post? You've either suddenly resolved your Bueller issues after years of costly therapy, or you're using the death of John Hughes to burnish your reputation. After all, being known as the Ferris Bueller lawyer has its privileges. Probably.
